A senior Labour spokesman today said Mr Corbyn was sorry for “pain and upset” caused by anti-Semitism and does not believe claims are a smear “in any way”.

Yet the Unite general secretary writes in the New Statesman magazine: “You would have to go back a long way to find such a sustained smearing by MPs of their own leader and their own party as we are seeing now.”

Mr McCluskey says “vile” anti-Semitic views do exist in Labour and members voicing them “have no place” in the party.

But he also warns “Corbyn-hater MPs” are trying to “toxify” the party by “working overtime trying to present the Labour Party as a morass of misogyny, anti-Semitism and bullying”.

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Marc Wadsworth was suspended after accusing MP Ruth Smeeth of working “hand-in-hand” with the press in 2016 - which she branded “vile conspiracy theories about Jewish people”.

MPs gave Ms Smeeth a guard of honour as she arrived to give evidence.

One, Wes Streeting, said Mr Wadsworth must be “kicked out” adding: “These are bad people with no moral scruples. Ruth’s friends and colleagues weren’t prepared to allow her to walk in on her own.”

Another, Labour peer Alf Dubs who fled the Nazis to Britain as a child, told the Mirror: “We have to take a stand. I think our taking a stand like this will also push the Labour Party into taking more action.”

But defiant Mr Wadsworth said: “It’s been torture, it’s been agony, I’ve been hung out to dry. I’m not an anti-Semite - I’m an anti-racist.”

Labour peer Alf Dubs who fled the Nazis to Britain as a child, told the Mirror: “We have to take a stand" (Image: AFP)

And Tony Greenstein, who was among protesters calling for Mr Wadsworth to stay, told the Mirror Labour’s anti-Semitism row had been “manufactured” by CIA spies and the state of Israel.

Prominent left-winger Mr Greenstein, who was expelled from Labour in February, said: “There isn’t a problem of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. What there is is a problem of false accusations.”

He added: “Who is behind it? I suspect Israel and the United States.”

And he said: “The people who live in Israel should continue to live there. The state itself, which is a racist apartheid state, should not exist.”

Tony Greenstein, who was among protesters, told the Mirror Labour’s anti-Semitism row had been “manufactured” by CIA spies and the state of Israel (Image: Dan Bloom / Daily Mirror)

A senior Labour spokesman refused to condemn him saying there was a “distinction” between members under suspicion and those found guilty.

“It’s not a question of whether it’s fine, but it’s obviously different, and Chris Williamson is a backbencher not a frontbencher”, the spokesman said.

The panel on Mr Wadsworth’s case, which sat in private, is not expected to reach an immediate conclusion.

The Labour spokesman said: “As Jeremy has made clear, we don’t - and he doesn’t - in any way regard people raising issues of anti-Semitism, have strong concerns about it, demonstrating over it, as in any way a smear. It’s completely fair and reasonable.

“He is sorry for the pain and upset that has been caused in the Jewish community as a result of cases of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party and the failure to take fast enough action over some of these cases.”

The spokesman added: “This whole situation is obviously distressing and the fact that it’s come to these kind of cases is a matter of extreme regret.

“And that’s what Jeremy has apologised for. He is absolutely committed to eradicating anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.”